DAWN OF THE YEAR 



to the truant of her duty, thoughtfully prepared against 

 her return. 



WITH the New Year, foxes seek their mates, and on 

 still nights the woods ring and ring again 

 The Fox's with the short, threefold bark of the dog 

 Idyll fox in love, and the shrill answering yelps 



of the vixen, like the scream of a child. 

 Foxes begin their courtship betimes, since March and 

 April are the months of good omen for the birth of 

 cubs. A green Christmas, followed by a mild New 

 Year, sets the vixen prospecting for a nursery earth, 

 and within a few weeks she will be one of our most 

 secretive wild animals, passing her days underground. 

 Meantime, the young foxes, now almost in their prime, 

 must fight for their mates among themselves. Some 

 will challenge the veterans; and will be given sharp 

 lessons in the game of love, while the vixen, the cause 

 of the trouble, looks on without concern. 



WE were amused to-day by hearing a story about 

 " Rambler," a hound-puppy " at walk " 

 A Hound's at a little inn, who has been enjoying the 

 First adventure of his young life, for he has 



Hunt entered himself to fox-hunting. On a 



sporting farmer's land he found a drain 

 always favoured in January by courting foxes. Built of 

 ten-inch pipes, it is V-shaped, the arms eight yards 

 long, and there is a roomy nursery-chamber at the 

 angle. The pipes are laid unevenly, to stop any charge 

 of shot which might be fired into the chamber. As 

 Rambler poked his nose into one entrance, a red head 

 looked out at the other, turning this way and that, and 



